You never truly know who is a friend and who is a foe. Only those who trust often are ever betrayed. That at least is the way things seem. The villain does not trust ever. They are cold, calculated, treacherous. But not always. This story is of misunderstandings, so perhaps the biggest misunderstanding of this story is who the villain is.

We begin this chapter in a room. It is dark and cozy, a large four-poster bed occupies the back wall and a desk sits across from it near a fireplace. Everything is dark reds and deep blacks, and the windows are draped in black as to not let any sunlight in. This is your room. 

You sit up in your bed, silk sheets caressing your skin as you stretch and wipe the sleep out of your eyes. You get out of bed knowing you slept well but somehow still feeling tired. Time to start another monotonous day, You think to yourself. As the Emperor of a country, the majority of your day is spent listening to people complain about budgets and beg to pass laws. While the job of an emperor is rather rewarding, somedays you just wish you could throw all those bumbling court officials out the window.

You hear a knock on your door, “What?” you say tiredly, wishing that you could go back to sleep.

“Your breakfast, Emperor,” a serf says from outside the door, “should I leave it at the door or can I come in?”

“You may enter,” you say as you start to get out of bed.

The serf enters the room holding a tray full of eggs and bacon, bread of all kinds stacked in a basket, cheeses from only the finest dairies, and fresh fruits. You take the tray and set it on your desk. “You may leave now,” you say to the serf.

“Yes Emperor,” they say before exiting the room. You sit down at your desk and immediately start to dig into the feast laid out before you. You slice up some bread and pile on eggs, bacon, and cheese. You add a piece of bread on top and take a large bite into your sandwich. The eggs were fluffy and covered in melty cheese, the bacon crispy and fatty. Altogether the sandwich was a perfect blend of salty, fatty, bacon, and sweet creamy cheese, with the soft mild flavor of the eggs.

You stand up from your chair and work to get dressed. You pull on a gray button-up shirt and a pair of black riding pants over which you lace up a black and silver corset. You slip on your pair of black work boots. Even though you know that your image is flawless, you stop to look in the mirror, adjusting your collar, checking to make sure that your corset was laced and tied correctly. You exit your room with your head held high and start down the hallway to the throne room.

You reach the throne room and sit down in the large ebony and black velvet chair. You sit down, cross your legs, and drape your tail over your lap. You hear the door open and in comes your faithful servant and attendant to the royal creatures, Quet’ze. But there was someone who was trailing behind it. A human girl of short stature. She had short brown hair with pink tips, a shirt that had what you assumed to be an albino donkey with a rainbow carrot attached to its head. Above and below it were the words “Do Crimes.” There were many strange things about this little girl but one of the strangest things was that she had no shoes.

“Quet’ze, who is this person you have with you?” you ask.

“Good day most gracious Emperor, this is Cori, a human girl I found outside the city.” Quet’ze bowed its head.

“Where exactly did you find her?” you say, puzzled as to why Quet’ze would just pick up a random stranger even though they know that there are such things as bandits that hang around those long roads.

“I found her in the middle of the road about 1000 paces away from here.” It says as if that is just a normal everyday occurrence and definitely not sketchy at all.

“You realize that you could have accidentally picked up a mass murderer or a thief, don’t you?” you say hoping that this Lird was at least aware of the consequences that could have followed their actions.

“Most gracious Emperor, I can assure you that this human is in no way a threat to our security. I have observed her and I have seen that she is very slow, both mentally and physically.” The human frowned at this description of herself but did not speak out.

“Human,” you say in your most regal voice, “tell me, what is your name and how did you come to be here?” You tilt your head to make it look as though you are looking down upon this girl because even though your throne is on a raised platform you feel the need to assert yourself as the Sovereign of a powerful empire.

The human mumbles to herself for a little and then begins to speak, “Um hi, my name is Cori and I am still pretty sure this is a dream but Quet’ze has me on the fence about that.” She says nervously, “I have no idea how I got here and I also have no idea how to leave. You see…”

You drift off somewhere in the middle of when Cori starts talking about how she “has never had a lucid dream before” and when you wake up you see that she is still talking.

“...so I went to sleep the other night and I woke up here.” Cori nods and fidgets and you realize that both Quet’ze and Cori failed to notice that you had been sleeping for the entire monologue.

“What an interesting story,” you say as you nod slowly, “what is your plan now that you are here?” you ask this question in hopes to drive the conversation in a direction that is NOT towards the one you did not listen to.

“I guess I’ll just wander the city and meet new people,” Cori says and shrugs. She obviously hasn’t thought very far into the future.

“I suppose you could stay in one of the guest rooms for a while.” You say. You do not know why but for some reason this little girl seems important. She perhaps could be a new sorcerer to replace Incirian, the great sorcerer of the woods and owner of the Quality Ink and Paper Outlet. Or maybe she was a great hero, destined to fight a great beast that will terrorize the empire. Whatever it was, it seemed important to keep an eye on her.

“Umm, sure I guess?” she says, “I do hope it's ok, Quet’ze was going to take me down to the tavern to meet some of Its friends.” The tavern? You chuckle to yourself thinking of the small Lird and human girl, going to the Rusted Anchor Tavern and Grill, a chain restaurant full of mercenaries and highwaymen.

“It is perfectly fine, I’m glad you are getting a chance to explore my magnificent capital city.” you smile wide accidentally revealing large incisors. You close your mouth fearing you may have scared Cori but when you look down you see that she was smiling back.

“Well we do have to be going now,” Quet’ze says and pulls out its pocket watch, “I scheduled to meet up at the Rusted Anchor at 19:30 and now it is 19:15.”

“Have a wonderful evening!” you say as they walk out of the throne room.

After they exit, you slump in your chair and release a heavy sigh. I don’t know why, but I almost expected them to invite me to join, You think to yourself. Being the Dark Emperor of the Normin Empire, most don’t expect that you would go and mingle with the commoners. You get up from your chair and walk back to your room.

You open your door to find a letter on your desk. You open the envelope and find that the ink inside is a bright, almost blinding, shade of purple. You know that this particular shade of ink is not available in retail stores and must be from a private collection. There was only one person you knew that owned bright purple ink, Incirian. In the letter you read this:

Greetings Saren, Great Emperor of the Normin Empire. I, Incirian, master of magics, have delivered to you a prophecy. In the shadows one lurks seeking destruction, On high one sits wary of others, Into the depths one dives blinded by their pride, All to save that which they think belongs to them, Though the path is dark and the road treacherous, The way to light is clear, Everything or nothing, Dark or light, Good or evil, All must fall and all will suffer. Anyways, I have no idea what it means but get back to me if you figure it out. Also next week there’s a half-off discount at the Quality Ink and Paper Outlet! See you next week! —All the best, Incirian.

You finish reading and start to chuckle. You most definitely will NOT be going to the Quality Ink and Paper Outlet next week. But perhaps you could drop off some muffins at xir hut. You walk over to your bed and starfish on top. What am I going to do this evening? You think to yourself. For the past week, Quet’ze has gone out to the Rusted Anchor with its friends, and not once has it invited you. 

“It’s just so rude!” you say to yourself as you sit up from your bed, “I think I will go out tonight.”

You get off of your bed and cross over to a large painting of a huldra and a soldier from the human lands holding each other in death grips as blood seeped from the many cuts on their bodies. You slide your fingers along the side of the frame, searching for the hidden notch that would allow you to open the painting and access a large collection of herbs, potions, and bits and bobs of animals and rocks. You rifle through the secret cabinet and find a bottle labeled, “Bottled disguise” which was conveniently placed next to a bottle labeled “Liquid Courage.” You grab the tail of a basilisk, a small bit of Alexandrite crystal, and the hair from a donkey’s mane. 

You take a cup that had been left on your desk and pour in a small amount of the “Bottled disguise” into the cup along with the basilisk tail, Alexandrite crystal, and the donkey’s mane. You take a stick you just happen to have laying around and use it to mix the disgusting concoction. You watch as the once clear liquid turns a murky green-brown color as the solid ingredients melted and slowly became a part of the stew. The liquid became very thick as it steamed and bubbled and dissolved all that had been put in it. 

After about 5 minutes, the concoction had stopped all motion and it was ready to drink. You tip the cup to your mouth and gag as the warm brown liquid slowly flows down your throat. It tasted of metal and snake meat that had gone bad. It felt as though you were drinking someone’s mucus, a warm slime made of questionable ingredients. You finish tipping the contents of the cup into your mouth and start to feel a burning sensation in your fingers. You stagger over to a mirror and watch as your skin turns a dark blue-green and your hair recedes back into your skull. Your tail grows and turns into one of a rather large reptile, and your legs turn into those of a donkey. Your face lengthens and becomes more reptilian than humanoid, and finally, your ears grow and acquire hair and become donkey ears.

You grab a large black sunhat, and a bag that has an infinite amount of space inside and proceed to hop out the window and walk into the city.

You wander through the street looking for the tavern when you hear some singing so off-key it almost sounded good.

“My darlin’ could you find the sheep that ran out o’ mah baaaarn, I miss them so dearly the sheep that I raaiiised. I am their mother I must make them big and strooong, so when they are older I may feed them to my faamiillyyyy,” you hear in the distance. You walk towards the sound of drunken singers and find none other than Quet’ze and Cori mingling with a group of cats in top hats and bow ties. So these are its friends, you think to yourself.

You grab a bottle of liquid courage from your bag and dump the contents into your mouth. It burns through your body like fire as you stride towards the group of singers.

“Hello all,” you say, testing out the sound of your voice. It is clear and bright like a songbird. “You sound like a proper chorus group, might I join you?” you open your eyes wide and magic up some shiny sparks to enhance your cuteness factor.

“Well,” Quet’ze says and turns around to see Cori nodding her head vigorously, “I suppose it would be ok.” Cori grabs you by the shoulders and they started singing and walking.

“My husband was away at sea and when the ship came back I went to greeeeeet him! But when I arrived I was quite shocked for they told me he was eaaateeen! I was so forlorn I walked the city streets all night aloooone, and when I came back to my senses I ran myself back hoooommmee! OOOOOOOO I wish my husband was here, was here, I wish my husband was here,  For if he was my children wouldn’t have been in my steeeewwwww. IIIIIII Haaadddd toooo slice them open, skin them, roast them and thennnnnn, eaaaaatttt myyyyy children!” you all sang this jaunty tune as you skip and hop along the road.

When the group stops, you see that there is a large looming building in front of you. The Xpress Mega-Mall and Convention center. This was the largest building in capital city and was full of shops and carts of every kind. You all enter through the revolving doors and stop just inside the entrance to marvel at the beauty displayed before you. Large marble pillars holding up floors of shiny silver and black ornate tile, shops filled with bright colored clothing and delicious smelling pastries. You had no idea why you were at the mall, but it didn’t make you stop to wonder at all.

“I’m going to check out that shop over there,” says Cori, “We should meet up by that fountain at 21:30 ok?” Everyone nods and heads their separate ways. You have money on you but decide not to buy anything and just wander through this palace-like building marveling at the beauty and wonder of it all.

And so our heroes (or villains) go their separate ways. Will they meet again, or will they be trapped in the confines of the mall forever? You won’t know until later because this is only the end… 

Of chapter 2